The Mancs of Merseybeat...
Nostalgia remembers two Manchester groups that made a massive impact on Merseybeat in the 1960s
BANDS like the Beatles, Gerry and the Pacemakers and the Searchers spring to mind when anyone mentions Merseybeat. Cilla Black, Billy Fury and the Fourmost might make the list too.
But two of the biggest groups associated with the Sixties musical sensation – Freddie and the Dreamers and Billy J.Kramer’s backing band the Dakotas – weren’t Scousers at all.
They were Manchester born and bred!
In fact, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas were one of the first groups recruited by Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein.
He was so proud of the Dakotas that he lined them up with the Fab Four and Gerry and the Pacemakers for the famous ‘bands on the wall’ photo of June 1963.
At the time, the Beatles were riding high in the charts and Gerry and the Pacemakers had just notched up their first number one.
The Fab Four were in brilliant spirits as their single From Me to You had topped the UK charts in April 1963 and their monster hit She
Loves You was due for release in August.
Gerry and the Pacemakers were equally ebullient. They were the first of Epstein’s bands to achieve a UK Number One with the Mitch Murray song How Do You Do It? in April 1963.
The Pacemakers set a UK record when their first three singles went to Number One. How Do You Do It? was followed up by another Murray song, I Like It, in June 1963 and then came the anthem You’ll Never Walk Alone from the musical Carousel.
The Dakotas topped the UK charts themselves in July 1963, a month after the wall picture was taken, with the Lennon and McCartney dual A-side composition – Bad to Me and I Call Your Name.
Bad to Me sold more than a million copies, and was followed up with another Beatles’ number, I’ll Keep You Satisfied, which peaked at No. 4 in November 1963.
It was Epstein who brought the Dakotas together with Bootle-born vocalist Billy J. Kramer in the early 1960s.
Working with the Beatles’ record producer George Martin, Kramer and the Dakotas released the Beatles’ song Do You Want to Know a Secret in early 1963. It went to No. 2 in the UK.
Kramer and the Dakotas departed from Lennon and McCartney to release the J. Leslie McFarland and Mort Shuman song Little Children in March 1964. It went to Number One in the UK and No. 7 in the USA.
The Dakotas are pictured on the wall next to Epstein, far right. They are guitarist Robin McDonald, Mike Maxfield (lead guitar), Billy J. Kramer, Ray Jones (bass guitar) and Tony Mansfield (drums).
The group got their name from an engagement at the Plaza Ballroom in Oxford Street, Manchester, when the manager asked them to dress as Dakota Indians!
Salford-born Mansfield, whose real name was Tony Bookbinder, was the brother of singer Elkie Brooks who later found fame with Vinegar Joe and as a solo artist.
Often associated with Merseybeat, Freddie and the Dreamers were all from Manchester. Former milkman Freddie Garrity was born in Crumpsall.
They achieved the distinction of being the first ‘beat’ act who were not from Liverpool or managed by Epstein to break through in the UK. The Dreamers were quickly followed by fellow Manchester bands Herman’s Hermits and the Hollies.
The Dreamers’ first Top Ten UK single was a cover of the James Ray hit You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody which reached number three in mid-1963. Then came I’m Telling You Now, which also reached number three in August, and You Were Made For Me, which climbed to number two in November.
Much of the band’s success was down to their carefully choreographed routines and Garrity’s energetic stage antics. He’d jump about, arms and legs flailing, in his horned-rim glasses.
Alongside Garrity, the original Dreamers were Chorlton guitarist Roy Crewdson, Didsbury guitarist Derek Quinn, bassist Pete Birrell and Bernie Dwyer on drums.
While Epstein was busy being photographed with his bands in June 1963, his first female singer was in the process of signing a contract. Her name, of course, was Cilla Black.
She was a regular visitor to Manchester, often recording for Granada TV as well as the BBC at Dickenson Road studios.
By May 1964, she’d released two smash-hit Number Ones with Anyone Who Had a Heart and You’re My World.
Merseybeat – along with the Dreamers and the Dakotas - had well and truly arrived.
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